L p 1. Bottle taken.
q 2,3. Threatening. (General).
r 4. Cause.
r 5. Cause.
q 6-9. Threatening. (Particular).
p 10. Bottle broken.497-480 B.C.
Jeremiah 19)
1: Thus says the Lord, “Go and get a potter's earthen pitcher (often seen hanging by a well to this day. Not a leathery wine-skin), and take of the elders of the people, and of the elders of the priests;
2: And go forth to the valley of the son of Hinnom, which is by the entry of the east gate (i.e. the pottery gate. See Isa. 19:19), and proclaim there the words that I shall tell you,
3: And say, ‘Hear you all the word of the Lord, O kings of Judah, and inhabitants of Jerusalem; Thus says the Lord of hosts (Yehovah Sabaioth), the God of Israel; Behold, I will bring calamity upon this place, the which whosoever hears, his ears shall tingle. (see 1 Sam.3:11.2 Kings 21:12. Cp. the ref. to Samuel in 15:1)
4: Because they have forsaken Me (see Deut. 28:20; 32:15. Cp. Jer. 5:7,17), and have estranged this place, and have burned incense in it to other gods, whom neither they nor their fathers have known (see Deut.32:17), nor the kings of Judah, and have filled this place with the blood of people (not merely babes);
5: They have built also the high places of Baal, to consume their sons with fire (see Lev. 18:21) for burnt offerings to Baal (cp. 7:31), which I commanded not, nor spake it, neither came it into My mind:
6: Therefore, behold, the days come, [is] the Lord's oracle, that this place shall no more be called Tophet, nor The valley of the son of Hinnom, but The valley of slaughter. (cp. 7:31,32)
7: And I will make void the counsel of Judah and Jerusalem in this place; and I will cause them to fall by the sword before their enemies (see Lev.26:17. Deut. 28:25), and by the hands of them that seek their souls: and their carcasses will I give to be meat for the fowls of the heaven, and for the beasts of the earth.
8: And I will make this city desolate, and an hissing (see 18:16); every one that passes thereby shall be astonished and hiss because of all the plagues thereof.
9: And I will cause them to eat the flesh of their sons and the flesh of their daughters (see Lev. 26:29. Deut. 28:53-57. Cp. Lam. 2:20; 4:10), and they shall eat every one the flesh of his friend in the siege and straightness, wherewith their enemies, and they that seek their lives, shall straiten them.’
10: Then shall you break the bottle in the sight of the mighty men that go with you,
11: And shall say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord of hosts; Even so will I break this People and this city, according as one breaks a potter's vessel, that cannot be made whole again: and they shall bury them in Tophet, till there be no place to bury.
12: Thus will I do to this place, [is] the Lord's oracle, and to the inhabitants thereof, and even make this city as Tophet:
13: And the houses of Jerusalem, and the houses of the kings of Judah, shall be defiled as the place of Tophet, because of all the houses upon whose roofs they have burned incense unto all the host of heaven (cp. 32:29), and have poured out drink offerings to other gods.’ ”
14: Then came Jeremiah from Tophet, to which place the Lord had sent him to prophesy; and he stood in the court of the Lord's house; and said to all the People,
15: “Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel; ‘Behold, I will bring upon this city and upon all her towns all the calamity that I have pronounced against it, because they have hardened their necks, that they might not hear My words.’ ”